Faulty HDD?

Crabman

Avoriaz - any chance you could check what BIOS version your laptop is running, or would you know whether it's been upgraded anytime recently?

I'm still looking into this, but after researching on Microsoft's community boards it seems that the BIOS may not be able to handle a HDD >137GB.

However if this were the case I'm thinking it would fail every time, not just occasionally...

Avoriaz

When I boot my Inspiron 8600 the initial screen shows

BIOS Revision A14

That doesn't mean that yours should be on that same BIOS revision. Have you checked the Dell site? There is no harm in installing the latest BIOS anyway.

I doubt if you have a BIOS problem. Your BIOS can either handle >137gb or it can’t and, as you write, it has handled it sometimes. At a guess, most fairly recent laptops have a BIOS that can handle large capacity disks.

Have you reinstalled Windows and, if so, is it ok now?

Crabman

I realise it's over a year since the last post but for the sake of anyone searching in future - there is a restriction/flaw in Dell BIOS terms and the solution is to partition the drive with sectors below 137GB.

Seems the problem arises when something is written to a part of the drive which is beyond 137GB which causes the laptop to not boot properly. I wasn't sure if this was the solution but tried it anyway and have had no similar problems since.